This article is the second in a series related to Link Building. Over the Summer, we wrote about Unlinked Brand Mentions, what they are and how to turn them into links.

This next article is going to focus on what we here at Objective Marketing feel are some of the most obtainable links, maybe even easier to obtain than “Unlinked Brand Mentions“. What makes these links so obtainable? These are links you have already acquired, but with a hitch. The hitch? These links are now pointing to a page or pages on your website that are broken (404 Error).

rec·​la·​ma·​tion | \ ˌre-klə-ˈmā-shən \

Definition of reclamation

: the act or process of reclaiming

Link Reclamation

With link reclamation, you will essentially be going after links that are already yours. At one point, you had a page on your website that worked. This page earned external links. This page no longer works. This is a problem. There are websites that are now linking to a page on your website that returns a 404 error, resulting in 1. a poor user experience and 2. the loss of “link equity” or “link juice”. Why does the page on your site no longer work? Was the content simply moved, or was the content REmoved? If the content was removed, the most logical step is to set a 301 redirect from the old page to a relevant page on your website and call it a day. If the content was moved and still exists on your website, we recommend spending some time conducting outreach to ensure any external links that pointed at the old page, now point to the new page where the content now resides.

You are probably asking yourself, “Why not just 301 redirect the old URL to the new URL?”. Great question. You can certainly do that and it is something we have recommended in the past. Then why are we recommending you spend time reclaiming these links with outreach? Another great question. Our answer? 301 redirects can break (technical issue) or may mistakenly be removed down the road, leaving you in the same spot you are in today, with links pointing at broken pages within your website. Going out and asking for a link to a broken page to be corrected ensures the above scenario won’t become an issue. In addition to avoiding the aforementioned issue, the jury still remains out on whether links to pages that 301 redirect carry the same weight as links to pages that do not 301 redirect.

Reclaiming Broken Links

As with many tasks related to search engine marketing, there are automated processes and manual processes. When it comes to reclaiming broken links, we use a mix of both. For this article, we will focus on manually conducting the search for links to broken pages.

Manually Searching For External Links to Broken Pages

We like to use a tool that is accessible to all webmasters and doesn’t cost a dime: Google Search Console. Here is the process, broken down into steps:

1. Login to Google Search Console
2. Once logged in, head to the section labeled “Index”. Within the “Index” section, there is a subsection titled “Coverage”. Click “Coverage”. This is your Index Coverage report. The Index Coverage report shows “Errors”, “Warnings”, “Valid with Warnings” and “Excluded”. For this exercise, we are interested in “Errors”. The “Errors” section shows URLs Google is familiar with, but for some reason, they cannot be indexed (404 Error, Redirect Error” and more). Click the “Error” section and if you have broken (404) pages, you should see something like this:

The screenshot above shows we have a single broken page(the goal is always zero). Click the URL that reads “Submitted URL not found (404)” and you will be taken to a page that looks like this:

Under “Examples”, you will find the the URL/page on your website that is broken. This is the URL you will need. With this URL, we can then proceed to looking for external links that are pointing to it.

How to Outreach to Websites that Link to Broken Pages

By this point, you should have compiled a list of external links pointing to broken pages on your website, either manually or using an automated process. What now? Well, you want to turn these broken inbound links into links that point to functioning pages. This is where outreach begins. Outreach is a science and we have created a downloadable guide on how to conduct outreach for broken inbound links. Interested in our guide on “How to Conduct Broken Link Reclamation Outreach”? Download Here

Google Launches Google Analytics 4 (GA4)

Google announced the release of Google Analytics 4 (GA4) on October 14^th. The new property type builds on the foundation of the App + Web property that Google introduced in Beta in 2019. The new property uses machine learning to offer predictive insights, offers deeper integration with Google Ads and more useful customer-centric metrics to improve business outcomes. GA4 was also built with the future in mind to adapt to changing technologies and user privacy regulations.

The new property does not integrate with existing property data from Universal Analytics & Global Site Analytics. Therefore, users will want to keep code for existing analytics properties in place and accruing data for historical comparisons. There currently has not been any announcement regarding the sunsetting of previous Google property versions. You will find that Google Analytics 4 properties are now the default setup. New improvements to Google Analytics will only be available in GA4 properties moving forward.

Machine Learning offers insights and predictions. Google machine learning models now offer insight into data trends that highlight specific user behaviors. Leveraging this data allows Google to predict future user events.

A model example, used by Google, is Churn probability in its Analysis module. Marketers will be able to use this information to make strategic adjustments to marketing campaigns and deliver greater success.

GA4 better integrates to Google Ads. Audiences have been enhanced to allow greater definition. Users can now be targeted or excluded across web and app platforms. Tighter audience creation will enable marketers to deliver enhanced ad targeting across campaigns. Because the new property encompasses both web and app, it can include conversions from YouTube engaged views from both web and app in reports.

GA4 moves to a Customer-Centric model. Previous Google Analytics versions focus on devices and platforms to report user behavior. This disjointed approach segregates user behavior. GA4 now focuses on the user first. User specific reporting allows Google to share data from interactions from a single user across device and platform. For example, a user who first interacts with a brand’s website, but then installs the brand’s app and converts, will have those data points linked. The initial web site visit will gain credit for its role in the in-app conversion.

Google built GA4 with the future in mind. The GA4 property takes into consideration changes to the technology landscape and potential regulatory changes. GA4 is designed to adapt to a future where cookies and other identifiers no longer exist. Already, Google Chrome is set to eliminate 3^rd party cookies in 2022. GA’s flexible approach to measurement and future modeling enhancements will fill the gaps where incomplete data exists. GA4 offers enhanced data controls to better manage data collection, retention and usage. This will be quite helpful to marketers who must comply with various data regulations.

Google continues to evolve its tools and platforms to aid marketers in delivering positive ROI. The Google Analytics 4 property does just that as it advances data gathering across devices and platforms. Further leveraging machine learning, Google is evolving prediction modeling to a new level. Marketers will find that GA4 delivers data previously unavailable and allows more of their energy to focus on decision making and away from data mining.

If you’ve spent any amount of time in Microsoft’s Bing Webmaster Tools in the past 2 weeks, there’s a good chance you have seen a new tab titled “Microsoft Clarity” with a “Beta” label attached to it.

What is Microsoft Clarity?

According to Microsoft, “Clarity is a user behavior analytics tool that helps you understand how users are interacting with your website through features such as session replays and heatmaps.” In a nutshell, Clarity is a behavioral analysis tool that helps you understand user experience, to make your website work better.

How Do I Sign Up for Microsoft Clarity?

As we mentioned in the opening paragraph, we stumbled upon Microsoft Clarity while navigating Bing Webmaster Tools. You can gain access via your Webmaster Tools account or you can also access Microsoft by visiting https://clarity.microsoft.com/.

I Signed Up for Microsoft Clarity, Now What?

In order for Microsoft Clarity to work (deliver insights), you will need to implement a script/piece of code, similar to Google Analytics.

Google Ads happens to be one of the most powerful and optimizable forms of advertising online. Google includes several campaign types (search, display, product, video, etc.) across a large expanse of web properties. The Google Ads platform offers a range of tools to help advertisers optimize campaigns to improve performance. The Google Ads Location Targeting tool has made it possible for local and regional advertisers to run successful ads on the Google network.

Location targeting, AKA geotargeting or geofencing, allows advertisers to target ads based on user location. While geotargeting is a pretty standard tactic in ad campaigns. The different location targets available at Google are not necessarily well known. Google Ads Help doesn’t do a good job of making mention of the various location targeting options. At a high level, Google mentions, “you can choose locations such as entire countries, areas within a country like cities or territories, and even a radius around a location”. It mentions areas within a country as “regions, cities or postal codes”. In reality, there is so much detail that Google Help is leaving out.

So, let’s start with the highest level of targeting – outside of not targeting at all (global). Country targeting is straightforward. You can choose which countries to target your ads to, or which countries to exclude from targeting. I’ve always wondered why Google hasn’t added continent level targeting. That would make country geotargeting a lot easier. Say you wanted to target all continental European countries. You could simply add Europe as a geotarget and then add the island nations as negative locations. Not having continent targeting has cost me hours of time.

The next level of targeting – “Areas within a country” is where Google Help truly understates the geotargeting capability of Google Ads. Google’s targeting options here are expansive, but not well promoted. Users can be targeted by common geographical structures such as counties, states, cities, postal codes and foreign country equivalents (territories, okrugs, governorates, provinces, etc.). There are some additional more granular location targets that don’t get much mention such as neighborhoods, boroughs, universities and airports. You are also able to target in the US by congressional district and Nielson’s DMA regions.

Radius targeting is also straightforward. Google allows you to target a radius of 1 to 500 miles/kilometers around a location. But again, Google doesn’t fully disclose the options available. The only mention for the target location is “enter the address of the location you’d like to use for the center of the radius”. For people who have used this tool. Its generally known that the location can be a zip code, city or street address. You can also input a business name/location such as “McDonalds Bronx” and target around that business location. Another sometimes powerful, yet widely unknown option is to target a map coordinate. This is the most granular and exacting form of radius targeting.

Keep in mind that Google’s geotargeting settings (“Targeting Method”) have become less rigid over time. There are now 3 options at the campaign level for targeting your selected locations. They are “People in, who show interest in your targeted locations (this setting is recommended by Google)”, “People in or regularly in your targeted locations” and “People searching for your targeted locations”. This selection is very important to your targets. If you are a service used by locals in Hawaii and use Hawaii as your targeted location, you wouldn’t necessarily want to target “People searching for your targeted locations”. You may find traffic mainly made up of prospective travelers from across the globe.

Additionally, Google now has 2 negative location settings (“Exclusion Method”) – “People in your excluded location (recommended by Google)” and “People in, or who show interest in, your excluded locations”.

A couple things to be aware of when bulk implementing locations. First, Google’s Geotarget list, found here, is a great resource. Keep in mind it follows a rigid definition of what a geographic area is. You’ll want to search through various categories to make sure you haven’t missed a geotarget. If you use Google’s list for country implementation, you will find Hong Kong, Puerto Rico, etc. and others listed as regions. In the case of Puerto Rico, you would not be targeting the island by implementing the United States as a Geotarget.

When using bulk implementation, be sure to review the location targets once they are resolved by Google. Where a location may be ambiguous, Google will select a region based on some internal hierarchy (most popular?). For instance, inputting “Norfolk” will target the nation of Norfolk Island. Inputting “Albany” will target the country Albania.

Location targeting is one of Google’s more powerful tools. Unfortunately, Google has not documented the tool in much detail. Putting some time into researching, and understanding, how the tool works, and its various options can lead to the difference between a winning and losing Google Ads campaign.

After adding structured data to your website, it is time to validate your code. Validating your code, regardless of the type, is good practice. Validating your structured data ensures that it is error free and gives your structured data the best opportunity to result in a Rich Result.

Validating Your Structured Data

There are numerous ways to validate your structured data, with one of the most common ways being Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool Google’s Rich Results Test . This tool, Google’s Rich Results Test, allows you to test your publicly accessible page to see which Rich Results can be generated by the structured data it contains.

Let us look at how Google’s “Rich Results Test” works:

1. Point your browser at: https://search.google.com/test/rich-results
2. Upon landing, you will see text that reads, “Does your page support rich results?” along with a search box directly beneath this text.
3. Above the search box, there are two options (tabs), “URL” or “CODE”. If you would simply like to test an entire page, enter (paste or type) the “URL” into the text box. If you are interested in only testing specific code (structured data, HTML or both) then choose “CODE”. For this purpose of this exercise, we are going to test a URL of a product page:
4. Upon submission, you will be presented with a page of results related to the Rich Results Test.
5. In the case of this example URL, the Test Results, at the highest level, are as follows”

As you can you see, the desired result has been achieved with the structured data implementation found on the example page. In the case of the example page, they are targeting multiple types of structured data. What are they you ask? Let’s take a look:

Breadcrumbs:

Products:

Review Snippets:

Negative keyword organization and implementation play a key role in the success of paid search campaigns.  Increasing the percentage of impressions where ads only show for targeted search queries eliminates wasted spend and improves the bottom line. As Google (and other paid search platforms) grow more liberal in how their keyword match types work, ads show more often for untargeted search queries.

If you are not completely familiar with keyword match types, this article may be helpful in putting more context to the processes explained below: Navigating Google Ads Keyword Match Types.

First, let’s discuss organization structures of negative keywords. Negative keywords can be implemented at various levels. Negative keyword lists can be built at both the account and manager (MCC) account levels. Account level lists can be shared with campaigns in that account. MCC level lists can be shared with campaigns whose accounts fall under the hierarchy of the MCC account. Campaign level negative keywords are attached to a specific campaign within an account and Ad Group level negative keywords are attached to a specific ad group in a campaign.

Now that we understand the organization, lets review how to use each of these structures. Let’s assume for the purposes of this article that you have a Google Ads account that focuses on selling furniture that appeals to bargain shoppers, the general buyer and luxury buyers. You’ve setup the campaigns to be somewhat aggressive and regularly use broad match modifier keywords. As you uncover search terms that you would like to exclude your ads from showing for. You will need to decide if you would like to exclude specific ads or all ads. Based on that decision, you would input the search term as a negative keyword in a specific area.

You find “dyi” and “build” showing up as part of search queries like “dyi kitchen chairs” or “build a coffee table”. You make the decision that you do not want any ads in any of your campaigns showing when either of these terms are part of a search query. To accomplish this, you would build a common negative keyword list at the account level and place these terms in that list. You would then share this list with each of your campaigns. Also, because you don’t want your ads to show if either of these terms were searched for, you would set the match type as broad. This would eliminate the possibility of any of your ads, in any of your campaigns showing up for a search query containing either term. Moving forward you can continue to add negative keywords to this list that you do not want any of your ads to show for.

Building MCC negative keyword lists largely follows the same logic as the account level lists. Lists in the MCC account can be shared with campaigns in any account under the MCC. For instance, if your furniture company had multiple locations with different budgets, promotions, etc. There may be a need for different accounts. However, the individual accounts may share the same negative keyword list profile. It would make sense, in this case, to add common negative keywords to a master list at the mcc level and share across campaigns in the various accounts.

Suppose the you organized campaigns based on the quality of the furniture. There are campaigns for each furniture quality level – “Luxury”, “General” and “Bargain”. After launching, the search term data showed numerous searches containing the term “cheap”. While this term would make sense as a part for a search query for furniture in the Bargain campaign. It is not targeted towards the Luxury and General campaigns. Adding “cheap” at the campaign level, to Luxury & General, (as a broad match negative keyword) would make the most sense in both blocking unwanted traffic and allowing targeted keywords in the Bargain campaign to still deliver ads.

At the most granular level is the Ad Group Negative Keyword. Adding keywords at this level limits a very focused group of ads from not displaying in search results. Let’s say that inventory for cherry coffee tables is out of stock. You’d like to eliminate queries including cherry from showing your ads. At the same time, you’d like to continue to display ads for your broad match coffee table keywords and other types of cherry furniture. In order to do this, you would ad “cherry” as a broad match keyword to your coffee tables ad group.

Be careful in adding negative keywords. If you are not properly organized, you can block your ads from showing for valuable search queries. A common mistake is to add a term as a negative keyword that ends up blocking “positive keywords”. For any term, added at to any of the negative keyword structures, be careful to make sure that you are 100% sure that you will not be blocking your ads from any valuable search queries. If you aren’t sure how to add a keyword, add it granularly. The most granular levels would be to add the keyword at the ad group level and as an exact match keyword. Thus, blocking only ads in the ad group from a search query that exactly matches the negative search term.

Just as you have built an organizational plan for your keywords within campaign and ad group structures, building an effective negative keyword organizational structure will play a large role in the success of your campaigns.

In our last article, “Structured Data and Rich Snippets – A Primer”, we discussed structured data, how structured data results in Rich Results and the types of Rich Results shown on search engine results pages (SERPs) (on Google in particular). In this article, we are going to go one step further and discuss what you need to do to give your content the best chance at showing Rich Results, which starts with structured data.

Before we go any further, it is important to note that Google states, “Important: Google does not guarantee that your structured data will show up in search results, even if your page is marked up correctly” on their General Structured Data Guidelines page. Again, in their own words, “Using structured data enables a feature to be present, it does NOT guarantee that it will be present.”

Formatting Your Structured Data

For your website to be eligible for Rich Results, you must use a structured data format that is supported by either Google or Bing. As of this writing, Google states they support 3 different formats:

JSON-LD (Google recommended)

Microdata

RDFa

Bing states on their “Marking Up Your Site with Structured Data” page that they support the aforementioned formats as well, which brings us to:

Which Structured Data Format Should I Use?

We recommend using JSON-LD as this is the type of structured data Google recommends. Bing also supports JSON-LD, making it the obvious choice.

Using JSON-LD for Structured Data

So, you have decided to use JSON-LD to format your structured data, you are probably wondering where to start. Well, you can go right to the source, “JSON for Linking Data” and depending on your level of coding experience, maybe even jump right in. Not a coder? Don’t have time to learn JSON-LD? There are options.

I Do Not Want to Hand Code My Structured Data (JSON-LD)

There are numerous tools and plugins (depending on your Content Management System) that will simplify implementing structured data. In this section, we will give you some options (that we have personally used):

1. Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper

Google makes it easy to get started with their “Structured Data Markup Helper”. The Structured Data Markup Helper helps you mark up elements on your web page so that Google can understand the data on the page.  The Structured Data Markup Helper currently supports the following data types:

Articles

Events

Movies

Restaurants

Book Reviews

Job Postings

Products

Software Applications

Datasets

Local Businesses

Question and Answer Page’s

TV Episodes

• JSON-LD Markup Generator by TechnicalSEO

The Markup Generator over at TechnicalSEO is one of our favorites. It is very intuitive and easy to use. As of the writing, the tool supports the following structured data types, some of which are absent from Google’s Markup Helper:

Articles

Breadcrumbs

Events

FAQ Pages

How-tos

Job Postings

Local Businesses

Organizations

Persons

Products

Recipes

Videos

Websites

Use their structured data generator to create JSON-LD markups, including all of the required item properties and more.

• Plugins

If you are using WordPress, implementing Structured Data is as easy as installing a plugin and following the plugin’s steps. As the number of WordPress Structured Data Plugins continues to grow, we want to point you to some articles that break down the top options:

6 Powerful WordPress Schema Plugins: Display Rich Snippets Easily

Best Structured Data Plugin for WordPress: a comparison of 10+ Plugins

7 Free Plugins for Adding Structured Data to Your WordPress Website

Stay Tuned for Part 3: I Have Created My Structured Data, Now What?

When people think of Google, they think of search. However, at its core, Google is a user experience provider. Everything Google has and has accomplished is owed to their keen eye on user experience. Think about why Google is Google today. The answer is that Google delivered the most accurate search results to users in the most presentable format. They gave users a better experience. This is a foundational piece to the Google empire.

When Google launched its paid search platform, they changed the way ads were delivered. Instead of delivering ads based on a straight ad auction, Google implemented an algorithm that factored in an ad’s quality along with bids. The algorithm allowed Google to show ads that were more targeted to user intent. This resulted in higher ad click through ratios and more revenue. While delivering more revenue was a desired outcome, it should not be lost that delivering users content closely aligned to their intent is a better user experience.

Google has always been motivating 3^rd party sites to adjust site content in certain ways. Those of you familiar with SEO efforts are keenly aware of how content needs to be presented in order to gain a foothold in Google’s organic rankings. Over the last few years Google has evolved its algorithm to focus more on the UX of 3^rd party sites. Sending searchers to better performing 3^rd party sites improves Google’s UX, of course.

As mobile became more popular, Google developed parts of its algorithm to take into consideration “Mobile Friendliness”. Google launched a tool to help site developers conform sites to Google’s vision of mobile UX – Mobile-Friendly Test. With the rapid adoption of mobile devices for everything digital, the UX of mobile sites is of keen interest to Google.

Google has also pushed for sites to become safer for end users. Google included https protocol as part of its ranking algorithms. In 2019 Google took things a step further with its Chrome browser beginning to block certain types of mixed content (mixed content is “http content” loaded into an “https site”) and warn users for other types of mixed content. As Google releases new versions of Chrome, more types of mixed content will be blocked. Again, Google helps developers understand issues by reporting mixed content (and other site issues) in its Search Console tool.

Over the last year, Google’s need for speed has become clear. This is especially true for mobile where limited bandwidth and slow loading pages are an end user’s reality. It has been reported that 63% of total ad spending takes place on mobile and that 52% of ad clicks come from mobile devices. Google understands that as sites load faster, users will interact more with them. That includes purchasing products and filling out leads form – completing the actions that Google’s advertisers set as campaign goals. As advertiser conversion rates improve, advertisers become able to spend more dollars with Google’s advertising services. This of course is no small thing. Google reported 134.81 billion dollars in ad revenue in 2019. A small bump in ad budgets, due to improved speed, is worth billions annually to Google.

To be fair, Google has had its eye on site speed for a long time.  It first announced a new ranking algorithm called “Speed Update” in early 2018. Google has long offered a variety of tools to help developers understand, and improve, site speed. Currently, Google offers a tool called PageSpeed Insights to help developers understand how to improve the speed performance of websites. The current version (5) was released in 2018.

Back to the present. Over the last year we have seen tools and reports regarding speed pop up across various Google Platforms. Google Search Console now includes a report called core web vitals. This report primarily looks at various loading metrics associated with a website. Its no coincidence that the sub heading in Search Console Help for the Core Web Vitals report is “Fix poor user experience on your site”.

Google Ads is ever expanding its recommendations section to help advertisers improve their ad campaigns. Google is now letting advertisers know if your landing pages are loading slowly and to consider Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP). As the name suggests, AMPs load fast. Google Ads has also expanded reporting under its Landing Pages section to include a mobile speed score, mobile friendliness CTR and Valid AMP click rate.

Google Analytics now lists a subheading under “Behavior” called “Site Speed”. Site Speed includes a report overview, page timings and user timings reports measuring various speed metrics. There is also a report called “Speed Suggestions”. Suggestions are a pretty unique thing to be found in Google Analytics. The suggestions are just links to the PageSpeed Insights for each webpage in the report. But still, to include this report speaks volumes to Google’s intense focus on speed.  

If you spend time in Google’s various tools and platforms, you are going to see reference to site speed. You may not dive into the reports or even understand what they are conveying. But do pick up on the high-level message that Google needs speed and that those sites that deliver it will be rewarded. Sites that do not deliver on speed will slowly disappear. UX demands that.

If you are a content publisher that focuses on organic search, there is a good chance you have heard or read about structured data and rich snippets/results. If these terms are new to you, no worries, if you use Google or Bing Search, I can guarantee you have seen them in action.

What is Structured Data?

Structured data is code that is written in such a way that allow search engines to more easily understand it. It is a way to organize webpage content (behind the scenes, visitors will never see it unless they are viewing the source code of your webpage) so that search engines can easily digest it and determine what the content is about. Search engines read the code and use it to display search results in a specific and much more robust way. As we mentioned in the opening paragraph, even if you have never heard the term “structured data”, if you have ever used a search engine(you have), then you have seen structured data in action, in the form of enhanced or rich results (formerly known as rich snippets).

What Are Rich Snippets/Rich Results

In Google’s words, Rich Results are, “experiences on Google surfaces, such as Search, that go beyond the standard blue link.”

Bing’s version, “visually appealing, information-rich search results”

In short, Rich Results, when displayed within search engine results, tend to give the searcher additional information related to their search without having to visit an individual webpage. The information they are displaying is a direct result of the structured data found on a webpage.

What Types of Rich Results Are There?

Twice we have mentioned that if you use Google or Bing, you have seen Rich Results in action. There are dozens of Rich Results in play in either engine, at any given time. Both engines are constantly testing and exploring ways to display these Rich Results to their searchers. We get it, we you want examples. As of this writing here are some of our favorite examples of Rich Results at both search engines:

• Products – Information about a product, including price, image, availability, and review ratings.
  1. Here is an example of product structured data (“top loading washing machines”) at work in the form of a Rich Result:

• Events – An interactive rich result that shows a list of organized events, such as concerts or art festivals, that people may attend at a particular time and place.
  • Here is an example of event structured data (“NYC outdoor events this weekend”) at work in the form of a Rich Result:

• FAQs – A Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) page contains a list of questions and answers pertaining to a particular topic.
  • Here is an example of FAQ  structured data (“Covid FAQ””) at work in the form of a Rich Result:

• How-tos – A How-to walks users through a set of steps to successfully complete a task, featuring video, images, and text.
  • Here is an example of How-to structured data (“how to shoot a jump shot”) at work in the form of a Rich Result:

• Videos – Video information in search results, with the option to play the video, specify video segments, and live-stream content.
  • Here is an example of video structured data (“build a spaceship”) at work in the form of a Rich Result:

This concludes Part 1 in our Structured Data and Rich Results series, which we hope has given you a basic understanding of both. In Part 2, we will be discussing “Adding Structured Data to Your Site”, including formatting, which format you should use and your implementation options.

Part 2: Adding Structured Data to Your Site

Which search option is the right choice? We are asked that question from time to time in planning out an online marketing campaign for clients. Also, when developing a campaign plan, we may suggest one search effort over another for various reasons. Both organic (SEO) and paid search campaigns can deliver successful results. For the most part, Organic and Paid work well together. Although both Paid and Organic listings both show up on Search Results Pages (SERPs), they have some unique traits that provide different opportunities (and limitations) to advertisers. This article will highlight some of the major differences and how each search offering can be best leveraged.

Rent or Own

Paid Search is a rental. When you are willing to pay for traffic, your ads will show in SERPs. When you are not willing to pay, your ads disappear. It’s that simple. There is no real equity derived from a Paid campaign. Organic search efforts (SEO) build equity. Optimizing a site and improving standing in SERPs lasts beyond the effort applied. While rankings may deteriorate over time (due to lack of ongoing effort, etc.), the fruits of your labor continue to provide bounty long term.

Targeted vs Broad

Paid search offers much more flexibility and control. This is quite necessary as advertisers pay on a per click basis. Organic lacks much control. However, there is no cost per click. Untargeted traffic has little downside. Below are a few targeting examples and how each differs from Paid to Organic.

Timing

Advertisers with time constraints may find Paid more attractive. Campaigns can be set to run from a start date until a specified end date. Additionally, there are dayparting settings that allow ads to be active or paused during days of the week and hours of the day. Aggressiveness (keyword bids) can also be raised or lowered based on time of day or day of week.

Organic search happens when it happens. There is no set period as to when rankings will improve to the point traffic starts to flow. Organic has major drawbacks for time sensitive items. It can take months, without any specific timetable, for keywords to rank in the SERPs. Additionally, you can’t turn Organic off. The upside to organic, is that in most cases there is no need to turn Organic off. Traffic will keep coming to your site whether you have a need for it or not. Generally, there is always some value in traffic, especially where it doesn’t cost on a per click basis.

Location

Paid search’s geotargeting capabilities are off the charts. Users can be targeted based on numerous location attributes including Country, Region, States/Provinces, DMA Regions, Congressional Districts, Counties, Cities, Postal Codes, Neighborhoods and user defined radii around map points. Your ads show where you want them to and that’s it. Ads also can show to users who are normally in an area but may not be in the area at the time of their search activity.

Organic location settings are defined by how relevant search engines feel your website/web page may be to a particular area. While this makes sense. It may not deliver the optimal amount of reach you desire. While you may rank well in the location your business resides, you may not at all be visible just a few miles away in surrounding areas.

Keywords

Paid allows you to input the specific keywords you want to show ads for. There is no limit to the number of keywords you can have. There are also several settings that allow ads to show for related keywords to expand your reach including misspellings and synonyms. You may also input negative keywords so that your ads do not show on specific related keywords. There is a drawback in paid search that keywords with very low search volume will be disqualified from showing ads. Additionally, keywords may not show in results if your ads are deemed as low quality in reference to the search query. Other than that, all your keywords are eligible to show in the SERPs based on bidding and other settings.

Organic keywords can be limited. There is only so much real estate on a webpage or website. While you may discover that there are literally hundreds of keywords that are relevant to a single webpage. It is not possible to optimize the page for even a small portion of that number. Simply optimizing the page for a keyword set does not ensure that your site will show in the SERPs for those keywords. There are many factors that play a role in rankings. You may find that your site only shows up in the search results for a small number of identified keywords. Again, it may take some time to acquire any rankings at all. On the upside, organic does have an advantage when it comes to keywords that are not affordable in Paid or cannot be shown (low search volume, low quality score). Broadly targeted keywords may be too costly for paid search. Since there is no cost for clicks on the organic side, there is no real downside to non targeted users entering the site along with targeted users. Where keywords are disqualified in Paid search, they are eligible to show in organic.

Ads

Paid search ads allow for greater control as to what is displayed in the SERPS. While there are character limits and editorial rules, largely what you enter in for ad copy is what the end user sees in the SERPS. There are also ad extensions to allow additional items such as phone numbers, addresses and product/service highlights to show in the SERPs.

Organic search results mainly display a title and a description for the ranking webpage. While you can define a Title tag and Description tag for a page, you still don’t get to decide which page gets shown in the results. Search engines are also changing the information that they provide to users in the SERPs. A recent report noted that Google is changing a site’s meta description, to their liking, over 62% of the time. Google is also changing the title tag.

The Winner is…

The above information is a sampling of the differences between Paid and Organic. It does a good job of outlining the high-level differences and noting some specific examples. The winner depends on your goals. In fact, for most websites, a combination of Paid & Organic effort works best. Paid clearly works best where timing is most important. But a well optimized website can quickly supplement paid efforts with a small amount of investment. On the other hand, Organic is the better play for keywords that are broadly targeted and can’t deliver a positive return on ad spend (ROAS) in Paid. Paid search can deliver a positive (ROAS) almost immediately upon launch. Organic efforts are an investment in the future. Effective Organic efforts outpace Paid’s return over time. Outlining your goals will allow a search expert to formulate a strategy that includes either or both of Paid & Organic to deliver success in search.